UC astronomers fight to save Lick Observatory

The evening sky at the top of Mount Hamilton at the Lick Observatory on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 in San Jose, Calif. Sixty specialized cameras that operate at UC's Lick Observatory, the Fremont Peak Observatory and a ground-based site, formerly in Mountain View but now in Lodi under a project called Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance, constantly monitor the night sky for meteoroids. less

The evening sky at the top of Mount Hamilton at the Lick Observatory on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 in San Jose, Calif. Sixty specialized cameras that operate at UC's Lick Observatory, the Fremont Peak ... more

Astronomy graduate student Angie Wolfgang, left, and Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics David Koo pose for a portrait in the remote observing room, at UC Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, CA, Friday May 9, 2014.The remote observing room is used for remotely working with the Keck Observatory in Hawaii and the Lick Observatory in San Jose. less

Astronomy graduate student Angie Wolfgang, left, and Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics David Koo pose for a portrait in the remote observing room, at UC Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, CA, Friday May 9, ... more

Photo: Michael Short, The Chronicle

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This video from the Lick Observatory in San Jose shows a car-sized meteor created a fireball over Bay Area skies.

This video from the Lick Observatory in San Jose shows a car-sized meteor created a fireball over Bay Area skies.

Photo: Lick Observatory

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Lick Observatory at 4,209-foot Mount Hamilton on Monday morning.

Lick Observatory at 4,209-foot Mount Hamilton on Monday morning.

Photo: Courtesy UC

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The Automated Planet Finder (APF) takes aim towards the night sky as the sun sets at the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 in San Jose, Calif.

The Automated Planet Finder (APF) takes aim towards the night sky as the sun sets at the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 in San Jose, Calif.

Photo: John Sebastian Russo, The Chronicle

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The 120-inch Shane Reflector which was installed in the mid-1950s and is still in use today. It's scale is impressive.

The 120-inch Shane Reflector which was installed in the mid-1950s and is still in use today. It's scale is impressive.

Photo: John Sebastian Russo, The Chronicle

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Doctor Steve Vogt gazes up at the dome which houses the Automated Planet Finder (APF) telescope at the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 in San Jose, Calif.

Doctor Steve Vogt gazes up at the dome which houses the Automated Planet Finder (APF) telescope at the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 in San Jose, Calif.

Photo: John Sebastian Russo, The Chronicle

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Doctor Steve Vogt explains the basic functions of the Automated Planet Finder (APF) while standing in front of the nearly seven-foot primary mirror of the telescope located at the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 in San Jose, Calif. less

Doctor Steve Vogt explains the basic functions of the Automated Planet Finder (APF) while standing in front of the nearly seven-foot primary mirror of the telescope located at the Lick Observatory on Mount ... more

Photo: John Sebastian Russo, The Chronicle

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Doctor Steve Vogt stands infront of the nearly seven foot primary mirror of the Automated Planet Finder (APF) located at the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 in San Jose, Calif. The APF is the first automated telescope programed to function without human interference. less

Doctor Steve Vogt stands infront of the nearly seven foot primary mirror of the Automated Planet Finder (APF) located at the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 in San Jose, Calif. ... more

Photo: John Sebastian Russo, The Chronicle

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Doctor Steve Vogt exits the Automated Planet Finder (APF) facility as the sun sets at the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 in San Jose, Calif.

Doctor Steve Vogt exits the Automated Planet Finder (APF) facility as the sun sets at the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 in San Jose, Calif.

PNDAYTRIP 05/C/29JAN99/PF/CG --- Astronomer Remington Stone demonstrates how large scale adjustments are made to the 110-year-old refractor telescope at the Lick Observatory on top of Mount Hamilton. The observatory has several functions for the public. (CARLOS AVILA GONZALEZ/SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE) less

PNDAYTRIP 05/C/29JAN99/PF/CG --- Astronomer Remington Stone demonstrates how large scale adjustments are made to the 110-year-old refractor telescope at the Lick Observatory on top of Mount Hamilton. The ... more

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, SFC

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The Lick Observatory as seen in a turn mirror in 1999. It is at the top of Mount Hamilton with the only star it will never see at night, our sun.

The Lick Observatory as seen in a turn mirror in 1999. It is at the top of Mount Hamilton with the only star it will never see at night, our sun.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

UC astronomers fight to save Lick Observatory

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University of California astronomers are in a fight over the future of historic Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton, where arrays of telescopes spy on stars and galaxies and the Milky Way's far-off exoplanets.

The issue involves a recent university decision to endits funding for the observatory within five years - a move UC Santa Cruz astronomers say would force the observatory to close unless they're able to find outside money to keep it open.

Despite a long record of advanced research at the 125-year-old observatory, four UC faculty committees and a panel of outside experts ranked Lick lower on their priority lists for long-term university funding than two far more powerful observatories that are being managed jointly by UC Santa Cruz and the California Institute of Technology.

The W.M. Keck Observatory on Hawaii's Big Island, whose twin telescopes are the most advanced in the world, was listed above Lick for UC funding, as was the Thirty-Meter Telescope now being designed by UC and Caltech and slated to be the most powerful ground-based telescope ever built. That project, also in Hawaii, is expected to cost $1.2 billion.

Competition for funds

Lick's operations are funded by $1.3 million per year from the university's $2.7 billion state allocation. Its fate is at issue at a time when competition for education funding from the state is fierce and all 10 UC campuses are in need of money.

But the decision to end funding has angered astronomers at UC Santa Cruz who run the observatory and insist it is still vitally important for many highly advanced research projects. Only at Lick, the astronomers say, can younger astronomers from Berkeley and other UC campuses obtain the necessary hours of "telescope time" required for their demanding research. In addition, senior astronomers say, losing the observatory would rob undergraduate and post-doctoral researchers of a valuable tool for hands-on astronomy.

"The observatory is a fantastic bang for the buck," said Berkeley astronomer Alex Filippenko, whose specialized automatic telescope at Lick played a major role in the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics awarded to his Berkeley colleague Saul Perlmutter for discovering the mysterious "dark energy" that pervades the universe.

"Lick is a vibrant research facility," Filippenko said. "It is used to develop and test new instruments, it provides hands-on training and inspiration for undergraduate and graduate students, and its telescopes are essential to the work of many senior astronomers."

The astronomers at Santa Cruz and other UC campuses have an ally in Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, who is leading a group of House Democrats urging support for the observatory.

'No plans to close'

For her part, Aimee Dorr, the university's provost and executive vice president, insists that "UC has no plans to close Lick."

In a letter to Lofgren, Dorr pledged that funding from UC would continue during a "five-year transition period" while the university and its astronomers seek "alternative funding sources."

"We're not leaving Lick," she told The Chronicle, but she said its supporters will need to meet the university "halfway there, or even a quarter-way there."

Dorr said funding for UC's observatories comes from the state's grants to the university.

-- Lick Observatory received $1.3 million in the current fiscal year, according to a fact sheet Dorr provided.

-- The W.M. Keck Observatory received $14.1 million as the university's share in joint operations with Caltech of the twin telescopes atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

-- Financing for the Thirty-Meter Telescope that is being designed is incomplete and more complicated. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has pledged $125 million to UC for designing the telescope and another $125 million for Caltech's share in the design effort. The two universities are committed to raise an additional $50 million each for the project.

Joint effort proposed

Filippenko and other astronomers at UC Santa Cruz say the decision to cut Lick loose from UC funding originated with Steven Beckwith, UC's vice president for research and an astronomer himself who once directed the famed Hubble space telescope instituteat Johns Hopkins University.

They accuse Beckwith of falsely diminishing Lick's role in contemporary astronomy and of wrongly claiming that Lick is used only by a handful of astronomers from only a few UC campuses.

Beckwith declined requests for an interview, and the university declined to make him available.

Lick is operated by University of California Observatories, a research organization at UC Santa Cruz known as UCO, which also manages the W.M. Keck Observatory and the design efforts for the Thirty-Meter telescope. UCO's share of UC funding is about $6.2 million.

Astronomer Michael Bolte, the former director of UCO and a strong Lick defender, has proposed a joint effort to keep the observatory open. If the university's Office of the President would eventually kick in about $750,000 per year, Bolte suggested, and the rest were found through corporate sponsors, private philanthropy, research fees for telescope time and grants for education, "then that is a model that might work."

How to help

Astronomers are raising funds to help support research at Lick Observatory. Contributions may be made at http://bit.ly/1g4VBr7.